1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to network control technique.
2. Description of the Related Art
Implementation of the personal information protection law and tendency of the enhanced internal control increasingly attract attention in management of classified information from companies and organizations. In the case of printing classified information, when a printing device is located away from a terminal currently logged in by a user to give a print instruction, there is a risk that the classified information may be leaked to a third person before the user reaches the location of the printing device. An authenticated printing system has been proposed as a countermeasure against this potential problem to suspend a printing operation after the user's print instruction and allow the printing operation in response to only the user's authentication by the printing device or a printer server related to the printing device (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-259012).
In this proposed authenticated printing system, however, there is relatively heavy management load for smooth operations of the printer server and the printing device performing authentication. For example, in a corporate user having multiple bases, there may be only one authorized system administrator. In the event of failure of a printer server installed at a base without the system administrator, the system administrator should go to the base with the failed printer server for fixation. Such a problem is not characteristic of the printing process but is commonly found in similar processes, for example, a process of writing information into an information recording medium.